Paga’s $1.5bn Monthly Volume Shows Scale Of African Fintech

By Ayo Susan

Paga CEO Tayo Oviosu has disclosed that the fintech processes more than $1.5 billion in transactions monthly, offering a fresh view of the scale of its operations and private-market value.

DEVELOPMENT:
Oviosu made the disclosure during an interview with School of Hard Knocks, which returned to Nigeria to feature the Paga founder.

He said that Paga now has more than 200 employees and is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. He also disclosed that the company generated about $60 million in revenue in its highest-revenue year, in today’s money.

“Paga today has over 200 employees, and we are processing over $1.5 billion every month. It’s hard to say in exact numbers but my company is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In revenue for the company we made about $60 million in one year,” he said.

DATA:
Paga’s latest disclosed monthly transaction volume translates to more than $18 billion on an annualised basis if sustained.

In April 2024, Oviosu also said that Paga had processed N14 trillion in its first 15 years, with about 80 percent of that volume generated in the preceding five years. He also said the company had created about 1,000 direct jobs and more than 100,000 indirect jobs through its agent network.

Earlier, Oviosu disclosed that Paga processed more than $2 billion in transactions across its markets in 2019, taking cumulative transaction value to about $6.6 billion since commercial operations began in 2012.

SIGNIFICANCE:
The numbers illustrate the distinction between transaction volume and company value. The $1.5 billion monthly figure represents money moving through the platform, not Paga’s revenue or valuation.

Oviosu also linked Africa’s demographic profile to the opportunity for financial technology businesses, saying about 60 percent of the continent’s population is under 25.

The underlying opportunity is therefore both transactional and demographic, as younger consumers increasingly interact with digital financial services.

NEXT MOVE:
The key issue for investors and fintech watchers is whether Paga can convert its substantial transaction throughput into sustained revenue, profitability and enterprise value while maintaining customer and agent growth.

Paga operates across Nigeria, Mexico, Ethiopia and the UK through its group structure, following its 2020 redomiciliation from Mauritius to the UK.

OUR LENS:
Paga’s latest disclosure provides a useful measure of how far the business has travelled from its early digital payments model. The company has built scale through its platform and agent network, serving banked and unbanked consumers and businesses.

The deeper financial story is not simply that $1.5 billion moves through Paga each month. It is whether that volume can consistently generate sufficient economic value to support the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars valuation disclosed by Oviosu.

For Africa’s fintech sector, that distinction between money flowing through a platform and money retained by the platform remains central to assessing business quality.

Ayo Susan is a journalist, covering business, infrastructure, insurance, technology, society and emerging developments with an emphasis on credible and engaging storytelling.